Lachish V: Regional and Site-Level Implications Revealed through the Past Decade of Research

Abstract

The last decade of research has seen a dramatic increase in the archaeological knowledge surrounding Lachish Level V. Many of the publications have been especially focused on Lachish V’s city wall; meanwhile, other aspects of the city, speaking both regionally and at the site-level, have fallen to the wayside. After a summary of the recent discourse surrounding the city wall, the site-level implications of these other aspects are explored. Results of this discussion show that Lachish V is larger than previously thought and further support both the suggestion that the city was not violently destroyed and that Podium and Palace A may have been part of the Level V city. Afterwards, a preliminary least cost path analysis between Lachish and two other cities was carried out to explore Lachish V in its regional setting. Results show that the city’s importance can not be understood based on its geographic location, but propose a separate possibility in which Lachish V’s importance can be understood as a result of it simply having been formed earlier than its main competitor in the analysis: Beth Shemesh.